


Bling

by an_english_girl



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Gen, Male Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-09 00:14:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11657625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/an_english_girl/pseuds/an_english_girl
Summary: Aris lends a hand with Costis’ preparations for the journey.  What else are friends for?





	Bling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Transposable_Element](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Transposable_Element/gifts).



> Created for Transposable_Element.  
> Prompt: Aris

**Bling**

Aris lends a hand with Costis’ preparations for the journey. What else are friends for?

~:~:~:~

“No,” said Costis firmly, clutching his ear.

“Yes,” said Aris firmly, holding the awl.

The black jet earring on the tray stared balefully up at them and said, as might be expected, nothing.

“He might have had it made into a signet ring,” Costis grumbled.

“Rings can be taken off by someone else,” Aris retorted. “As you know, and he knows you know.”

“Or a neck chain.”

“Like a slave?! C’mon, Costis!” Aris put the awl down in the tray, and reached over to jog his friend’s shoulder. “One little punch and it’s all done!”

“No,” said Costis mulishly.

“You’ve been telling us all for weeks how you’d march into the mouth of hell for him,” Aris pointed out, with another good-natured shove to Costis’ shoulder. “You didn’t qualify it with ‘only with intact ears’!”

Stubborn silence. 

“Ladies have both ears pierced.”

Black look.

“I know you are Close-mouthed Costis, but this is ridiculous.”

“No.”

Aris sighed, picked up the awl and used it to count on his fingers. “Sejanus. Dite. Philo dear. Hilarion. Ion. Relius. Baron Susa. Even Leguras the Awesomely Beautiful has an earring – and you’re the first and only person I’m ever telling that he cried every night for a week after he had the hole punched, pulling the bit of thread through it. It can’t be so bad.”

Costis set his jaw stubbornly. “The _King_ doesn’t have one.” 

“The king doesn’t have his right hand,” said Aris bluntly. “I’m not proposing to cut your ear off completely! And my little sisters will still think you’re gorgeous.”

Costis gave him a completely bewildered look. “What on earth does that have to do with it?”

“They’re not the ones cutting bits off you?”

Costis shut his eyes, and opened them quickly as Aris made a teasing jerk with the awl. “If you are trying to appeal to my sense of honour, the answer is still: No.”

“The answer is still: Yes.”

“No.”

“Would you just put your head down on that tabletop and have your ear bored, Lieutenant Ormentiedes!”

“No!”

Aris slammed the awl down again with a bang. “Drinking that large cup of wine first was supposed to dull the pain, not make you as stubborn as an ornery mule!” He picked up the awl and pointed it with an air of finality at Costis. “There are three options. You can have your ear bored now. Or I can tell Ornon, who will send for those two very large Eddisians. If they are able to squash the king, they can certainly squash his pet guard, and will probably have no qualms or sensitivities in doing it whatsoever. Or-”

He stopped. There was a long pause before Costis sighed. “And the third option?”

“I can tell the king. And you’ll simply wake up tomorrow night with your ear pinned to the bedpost.”

Costis looked at him, looked at the unbarred window, looked at the leather curtain over the doorway. Then, with the air of one submitting to his own execution, he bent and put his head onto the tabletop. “Punch!”

Aris rose to stand over him. “You know, there’s one good thing,” he pointed out cheerily, poking the tip of the awl quickly into the lamp flame.

“Huh?”

“Whatever happens on this mysterious errand which you can tell me nothing about except that I’m imagining it all and you’re merely being packed off as a guard for Ambassador Ornon, you’ll know that nothing – no shipwrecks, no falls, no wounds, nothing! – will be quite as terrible as this!”  
~:~:~:~


End file.
